Bath stall plate of William Gossett, British (1816)

Title	Bath stall plate of William Gossett
Nationality	British
Period	1816

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Engraved: 'WILLIAM GOSSET ESQUIRE. / Lieutenant Colonel in the Army and / Captain in the Corps of Royal Engineers / COMPANION of the Most Honourable / Military Order of the Bath / Nominated 26th November 1816'. This is a rare award for the bombardment of Algiers and appears to be Gosset's only named award.

These stall plates were screwed into the choir stalls of the Chapel of the Order of the Bath in Westminster Abbey. Old ones were taken down on the death of the owner and this, complete with its original period paper wrapper, is part of a batch sold off by the Church of England in the 1960s. The maker's name and address is punched into the back.

William Gosset commanded the Royal Engineers on board HMS Queen Charlotte, which led the attack on Algiers. This attack, commanded by Lord Exmouth, involved the destruction of the Barbary pirates, renegade Muslims who the Sultan of Turkey asked the US and British navies to destroy.

He was commissioned in 1798; served on the expedition to Holland in 1799, in Ceylon during the Kandian war, in the Mediterranean on several occasions; from 1812 to 1815, commanded a detachment at the attack and burning of Oswego (New York State on the shore of Lake Ontario) in the 2nd American War. He was made Knight Commander of Hanover (ie became Sir William Gosset) in 1831 in view of his long services in the Royal Engineers. He died 27 March 1848 as a Major General in the army. (Source: 1843 Hart's Army List.)

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[Militaria : Medals : British : 19th Century]

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